Cosmos Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") set out the conditions for using Cosmos ("the Service") and the rights and obligations of the operator and users. By using the Service you agree to these Terms.

The Japanese version is the authoritative original. If there is any discrepancy in interpretation, the Japanese version prevails. These Terms are governed by the laws of Japan.

Purpose of the Service

The purpose of the Service is "mutual help close at hand in Japan's aging society": you request help (cleaning, shopping on your behalf, yard work, wellness checks, and more), and a worker who lives nearby starts helping only after meeting you in person — a neighborhood mutual-help service.

Scope and Eligible Users

The Service is intended for use within Japan. Workers are not employed by the operator: as independent contractors, they accept tasks from requesters (a contract for work). You may register as a worker once you have passed the first 31 March falling on or after your 18th birthday — that is, once you have reached the age at which high school ends. High-school students cannot register.

The Service is available only to users aged 18 or over. Users under 18 cannot register for or use the Service in any capacity, whether as a requester (including proxy requests on behalf of family members or others) or as a worker. If the date of birth entered at registration turns out to be untrue, the operator may suspend the account.

Parties to the Contract and the Operator's Role

The contract for the task is formed between the requester and the worker. The operator provides the place where the two meet (the Service) and runs the mechanisms that keep the transaction safe: identity verification, fee calculation, collecting payment and paying it out, and investigating problems. The operator is not a party to the task and does not employ workers. A worker is free to decide whether to accept any request that arrives.

How a Request Is Matched

Requests are matched immediately, without specifying a date and time (we do not accept bookings for a specified date and time). When you post a request, nearby workers are notified, and the match is established when a worker accepts. If no worker is found within 30 minutes, the request ends automatically and no fee is charged.

Face-to-Face Greeting Rule

The Service requires an in-person start and an in-person completion. After arriving, the worker (helper) must greet the requester or in-person beneficiary directly before starting the task. Work cannot be started without meeting in person. Location and face-to-face records are stored for safety verification.

About the Estimated Task Time

Every job shows the worker (helper) an estimated time from start to completion. Going over that time carries no penalty, but please treat it as a guide and aim to finish the job within it.

Health Considerations

Because workers are independent contractors there is no legal cap on working hours, but overworking harms your health. Avoid continuous shifts and take enough breaks and sleep. Do not accept jobs when you are unwell.

Safety and Crime Prevention

Our work is a service where people meet in person in private spaces such as your home. All users must observe the following safety precautions.

Requesters: during the work, stay present and keep an eye on the worker as much as possible. If any problem occurs, ask the worker to stop, then promptly contact the operator support window in the app.
Workers: a worker's job carries a duty to act in good faith. The requester decides what is to be done; how to carry it out is for the worker to judge. Perform the requested work sincerely, and stop promptly if the requester asks you to stop.
Response to suspicious behavior: if anything suspicious is confirmed, the operator will investigate and take measures such as account suspension. Where suspicious conduct is found, the user's name, identity-verification information, location data, and face-to-face records will be provided to the police and other investigative authorities.

Prohibited Conduct

The following behaviors are subject to reporting, blocking, or account suspension:

Abuse, harassment, or discriminatory remarks
Demanding money without authorization, or soliciting off-app transactions
Not performing the agreed task, or falsely reporting completion
Disclosing or misusing personal information or secrets learned through the work, such as addresses, contact details, or passwords
Working under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or any dangerous act
Impersonation or falsifying identity
Conduct that violates laws or public order and morals

In any other case judged to be malicious, the account will be suspended.

What Workers May Not Do

Workers can basically work without any license. However, the following require a permit or national qualification and are therefore subject to reporting and suspension as violations of these Terms:

Driving the requester in a private car
Logging in, transferring or paying money, or filing online applications to government offices while impersonating someone else
Drafting legal documents such as government filings, contracts, wills or inheritance papers
Taking household garbage away or transporting it to a disposal site
Physical care such as bathing, toileting or feeding assistance, any medical act, or making medical judgments
Boarding or caring for pets on a for-profit, repeated basis
Looking after or babysitting children

The detailed line for each category is shown under "What we can't do" on the request screen.

Confidentiality and Returning Items Received (Workers)

A worker must not use information learned through the work about the requester, their family, or the in-person beneficiary (address, how they live, health or family circumstances, the inside of the home, and so on) for any purpose other than performing that job and reporting to the operator, and must not disclose it to third parties. This duty continues after the job ends and after the worker leaves the Service.

A worker must return every item received during the work — keys, cash, receipts, change, cards, documents, purchased goods, and so on — to the requester when that job ends. If you find you have taken something home after the job, contact the operator promptly and return it as instructed.

Photos and Conversations During a Wellness Check (Workers)

Photos taken for a wellness-check request may only be captured and sent through the report feature of the Service; they must not be saved on the worker's own device or posted to social media or other services. Conversations and observations from the visit must not be used for anything other than the report and reporting to the operator, and must not be passed on to third parties. Only the requester, the assigned worker, the person being checked on, and the operator can view the report.

Compensation and Commission

The total compensation (the service fee) is shown on screen before the request is confirmed, and all displayed prices include consumption tax. The operator charges a commission (20%) on completed transactions. The service fee, and the cash handling fee described below, are payable by credit card only.

For shopping on your behalf and other requests where the worker purchases goods, the cost of goods is settled at actual cost and is handed directly from the requester to the worker in cash. When placing the request, the requester enters the amount of cash to hand over (from 1 yen up to 50,000 yen) and hands over that amount at the in-person greeting on the day. The worker purchases only within the amount received (anything the cash does not cover is not purchased) and returns the receipt and any change to the requester on the spot. The operator never holds this cash; the cost of goods passes directly between the requester and the worker.

For requests that involve cash, a "cash handling fee" equal to 3% of the receipt total approved by the requester (rounded down to the nearest yen) is charged to the credit card together with the service fee. This fee belongs to the operator and is not part of the worker's earnings. The authorization placed when the match is established is based on the cash amount entered at request time, and at completion the charge is reduced to the amount based on the receipts actually approved (no fee is charged on anything that was not purchased).

A worker receives the compensation minus the operator's commission. The cost of goods is an actual expense received in cash and is not part of the worker's earnings or payouts. Earnings close on the 25th of each month: earnings confirmed from the 26th of the previous month through the 25th are paid to the worker's registered bank account on the 1st of the following month (no transfer fee is charged). If that total is less than 5,000 yen, it is instead paid out in full — regardless of the amount — on the 20th of the following month (secondary payout day). Earnings confirmed on or after the 26th are included in the next closing. Earnings whose payment processing has not finished by the payout day (for example, after long holidays) are included in the next payout. Upon account deletion, the full unpaid amount is paid regardless of timing or total. Workers are responsible for filing and paying their own taxes on what they earn.

Receipt of Payment (Collection on the Worker's Behalf)

The worker entrusts the operator with receiving the compensation (the service fee) and any cancellation fee payable by the requester, and the operator receives it on the worker's behalf. Once the requester has paid the operator, the requester's payment obligation to the worker is discharged. The operator pays the worker the amount received less the operator's commission, by the method set out in "Compensation and Commission".

Cancellations

A requester incurs cancellation fees according to the progress stage of the work: free before a match is established, 50% of the service fee after a match is established and before the worker departs, and 100% of the service fee after the worker has departed. A cancellation fee is consideration for the worker having set aside time for the request and, in the later stage, having started travelling, so we pay it to the worker less the operator's commission (20%). Details are shown in the Notation Based on the Specified Commercial Transactions Act and on the cancellation confirmation screen. Once both the requester and the worker have confirmed the cash handover for the cost of goods, the requester can no longer cancel (the cash you handed over is settled as part of the steps to completion). No cash handling fee is charged when a request is cancelled.

Workers should avoid cancelling jobs they have accepted. If a worker's cancellation rate over the last 30 days is high, new request notifications are temporarily paused; if it is higher still, the account becomes subject to operator review.

Damages and User Responsibility

The operator provides a venue for matching within your local community. The operator does not compensate for property damage, injury, or other loss arising during a worker's work; such matters are to be resolved between the parties involved (the requester and the worker). Workers should consider obtaining their own insurance as needed.

However, where the operator causes a user loss through its own intent or gross negligence, the operator will compensate that loss. For loss caused by the operator's slight negligence, compensation is capped at the amount of the service fee for the request concerned. We do not disclaim liability where the law does not permit it.

Exclusion of Antisocial Forces

Each user represents and warrants that they are not a member or quasi-member of an organized crime group, a corporate extortionist, or any equivalent person ("antisocial forces"), and that they have no relationship with antisocial forces. If the operator judges a user to be in breach of this, it may suspend the account or terminate the contract under these Terms without prior notice or demand, and is not liable for any loss the user suffers as a result.

Handling on Withdrawal

After withdrawal, your account can be restored within 30 days. Once 30 days have passed, it can no longer be restored, and your account information is deleted or put into a form that cannot identify you. Transaction records are retained as required by law, with the information that identifies you severed (for details, see "Retention Periods" in the Privacy Policy).

Self-Recovery When Changing Devices or Accounts

You can sign in again with whichever of Email, Apple, or Google you were using.

Amendment and Governing Law

In accordance with Article 548-4 of the Civil Code of Japan, the operator may amend these Terms where the amendment is in the general interest of users or is otherwise reasonable. When we amend them, we announce the content of the amendment and its effective date in the in-app notices and on the official website at least 14 days before the effective date. For material changes, re-consent is requested within the app. These Terms are governed by the laws of Japan.